I just bought a copy of Acronis True Image 2013 with Plus Pack. It appears that this is all I need as True Image will install the new motherboard drivers as part of the migration process. But do I stay with MBR or move to GPT?

Presently both Win7 (on a 120GB SSD drive) and Windows 8 (on a different 120GB SSD drive) are both MBR format. I don't want to start over from scratch. That's why I bought the Acronis 2013 with Plus Pack.

I have windows 8.1 installed on 120gb ssd. I also have a 1tb HDD too. So I was trying to install Hackintosh/Linux when I noticed that the System Reserved partition was on my HDD instead of the SSD. So, I used easybtc to migrate my boot files to my SSD. I deleted the system reserved partition. Now I want to convert my BIOS to UEFI. I have Z87 pro mobo.

I tried this tutorial: [URL] ....

But it seems to be geared at the C drive, where I don't have room for that 350mb as disk utility wont let me shrink it.

Edit: would downloading a third party partitioner, shrinking C about 350mb, or whatever is the minimum, and then use that new space as described in the guide work?

Right before I performed a clean install of Windows 8.1 x64 on my Inspiron 3520, I switched to the Legacy BIOS *facepalm*.

When I enter the legacy BIOS and enabled "secure boot", I performed a restart that gave the following message "internal hard disk drive not found, to resolve this issue, try to reseat the drive. No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 enter setup menu, F5 enter PSA". Of course, when I go back into the BIOS and disable secure boot, it reverts back to legacy and boots up Windows 8 just fine. What I'd like to know is, how can I revert back to UEFI so I can change the boot-up option and perform a clean install under UEFI.

Yesterday, after many, many problems with my computer, I finally decided to reinstall Windows 8.1 Pro onto my ASUS X200CA netbook. However, after backing up and reinstalling the OS, I found that when I tried to disable "Launch CSM" in my BIOS, all of my boot options would disappear and my laptop would continually boot into my BIOS. When I re-enabled "Launch CSM", the boot options would reappear - however, it had not included the "Option #1 - Windows Boot Manager" that I had seen in my other installation.

Have a toshiba laptop with the UEFI encrypted windows 8 key. The hard drive was broken as it was dropped. No sticker on the bottom as is now microsoft policy. Download of the windows install needs the windows key. Cant get it as it's encrypted. Found generic windows 8.1 keys which worked but it said it was the wrong key for those installs. Generic windows 8 keys don't work for the download. Going around in circles and not sure what to do.

I just recently built a new Windows 8 machine. Since I knew I was going to be getting an SSD down the road, I planned ahead:

Nutshell, the C: drive, the boot drive, is at the end of the partition, sized to 220 DB, so I knew it would be smaller than the 240/256GB drive I knew I'd eventually be getting. The Users folder is on the D: drive, so the C: partition is only the OS and apps. Everything's dandy.

I found EasyBCD and used it to move the boot manager over into the C: partition, so theoretically that's all I need to move over to the new drive. So what I want to do is move the C: partition over to the SSD, have it stay C: once it's there, and then have it boot into that partition. (Note that I cannot disconnect the hard drive when it's time to reboot because that's where the Users folder lives and I don't want to break that.)

I keep running into problems with the "keeping it C" part. When I clone the drive over, the old drive stays as C: (as you would expect), and the new drive gets a new letter. Attempts to change those letters using DISKPART from the Win 8 install DVD have been either futile or disastrous.

I've been using the free version of Macrium as my cloning / imaging tool...is there a better free tool I should be using?

I have followed this guide How to Migrate OS to new Hard disk.Ive run this in another desktop, it completes and i shut down, remove the destination and insert it into the laptop - power up and it blue screens with There has been an unexpected error message. Trying to access the recovery partition says it is damaged but looks like its almost going to load. Looking at the drive in EaseUS paritition master the paritions look a perfect copy apart from the proportional sizing.

AHCI is enabled in bios - i've tried EaseUS Backup clone, task was successfull but again blue screens but this time with a attached device cant be found.

One thing i wasnt sure about, the PC i done the cloning in has a RAID stripe setup but not sure if this effects it.Any one had success in cloning a GPT drive over to a SSD?

I cant do a fresh installation of windows 8 as i dont have recovery discs, nor does the onekey recovery software allow me to do so and id like to keep the recovery parition in tact really.

I just built a desktop with a sabertooth x79 motherboard, and am running Windows 8.1 pro 64-bit. When I click the UEFI BIOS Firmware live tile via the change PC settings>update and recovery>recovery>etc. my computer reboots normally to Windows and will not open BIOS. I have tried accessing it using the delete and f2 keys, but this does nothing either.

I am up to date in terms of my BIOS, and am definitely running UEFI and not legacy.

Just a quick question about UEFI installation. I've got the Windows 8 Pro DVD but I lack USB Flash Drive 4Gb, is it possible to install Windows 8 with UEFI support with the DVD support or as written in the tutorial the USB Flash Drive is mandatory?

Is it possible to install Windows 8.1 as Legacy with MBR? Or only as UEFI with GPT? I'm kind of confused with all this UEFI business, I always used MBR in my Windows installations. Also, Truecrypt does not support UEFI, so if installing Windows 8.1 I should do it as legacy.

Also, how can I control during the install process if I want to set my system installation as UEFI or Legacy?

I think my system has more than enough performance to run Windows 8. But my bios don't have UEFI support. So, i just wanna know will my computer be able to run Windows 8 without any troubles without that secure boot option.

I"ve run Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant Tool in my system and it says everything is okay except Secure Boot option. also I'v checked individual hardware vendor sites for the latest drivers for windows 8. Most products has the drivers, And the current drivers also compatible with Windows 8 according to the upgrade assistant.

What should i do so? Will the win 8 upgrade useless in my system? or it will be better than the current win 7?

In the tutorial to install Windows 7 in UEFI, there is not that damn partition recovery, while in the tutorial for Windows 8, we can see it.

When I install Windows 7 (MBR mode), I avoid this partition "recovery" by creating a partition with a name before installation. I install the OS on it and everything is fine, no partition "recovery" But here, since one must delete all partitions, If I create a GPT disk with a partitioning tool before installing, is that it might be appropriate?

I have a Lenovo B575 laptop that is not UEFI capable; however, I have downloaded the x64 Win 8.1 ISO, burned it to a bootable DVD and a bootable USB drive and tried installing Windows 8.1 using a boot from DVD and also a boot from USB drive, and neither method has resulted in a successful installation. The root cause of the installation problem is that Windows 8.1 is intent on creating an EFI partition structure on my non-UEFI machine.

So, I end up with a 300MB Recovery Partition and a 100MB EFI Partition which doesn't work well on my machine. Now, during the installation process, I opted to delete all existing partitions and allow the installation to properly partition the hard drive for installation; however, I knew I was in trouble when the machine started hanging during reboots.

I have made a clean install of Windows 8 using USB and UEFI. Somehow it seems the instalaltion is not quit right of what I have read... Have attached picture of the Diskmanagement (OS is Norwegian by the way).

Originally my laptop came with Windows 7 and when i looked at disk management my disks were formatted with UEFI schema. One of my friend gave me a UEFI bootable USB drive loaded with Windows 8. So, i thought why not give it a try. So, I created a backup of my OEM Windows 7 and saved the iso files in a seperate external HD (created twice just to be sure . Now, i decided to load the Windows 8. Booted into the BIOS and there is an option to select the USB drive along with the UEFI option for that USB drive. I selected the UEFI option but some reason it does not boot into UEFI.

So I decided to select the standard USB install and this option let me install windows 8. In the process of installing i formatted the partitions and made a single partition and installed Windows 8 on it. I am guessing now the drive is not GPT but MBR. I also noticed that his installation USB disk had an option to select either 32bit or 64bit of Windows 8... Would Microsoft create a same iso file with both versions? I am guessing he created the USB from a illegitimate source.

I am planning on purchasing Windows 8 Pro version as an iso but wanted to be confident that it would work with UEFI architecture.

Questions:1. Why would the system NOT boot from UEFI?2. If I download the legitimate iso from Microsoft and wanted to install Window8 Pro via UEFI, I am sure i would have to format my SSD to GPT and how would i go about formatting it during installation?3. How would i create a recoverable USB for my iso image i created for Windows 7 via ASUS AI Recovery. Do I need to follow the same procedure as stated in creating bootable USB disk (i.e. FAT32 system) via diskpart utility?

I have just recently bought a new computer. If I knew I was going to have this issue I probably wouldn't have bought a 4TB HDD but anyway.

What I have done is read the article (this is where I found out I couldn't install to the 4TB HDD in the first place) on how to install Windows in UEFI format. I have created a USB flash to do this but still my HDD partion is only showing up at 1.6TB. It is setup as a GPT file format as it gave me all the prompts and created the Recovery, system partitions etc. How do I get this to work so when I do the install it shows up in the first place as the 4TB partition or at the end of it all is still not possible?

What I will be doing is installing Windows on this 4TB patition and then using a 256GB SSD in SSD Caching.

Am I better off getting a 1-2TB drive and installing normally instead of wasting my time or can this be done?

I have windows 7 already installed.my hard disk have 3 partitions and there are data in them.so,if i want to install windows 8.1 with uefi do I need to format all my partitions or only the windows 7 installed partition?

I recently bought a new SSHD for my laptop and after initial problems with trying to install Windows in UEFI, I turned to Legacy and that worked. But now when I change it to UEFI, it just comes up as "Operating system not found".

I installed Windows 8 with UEFI on a GPT SSD like the tutorial on this very forum states, but I ran into an issue when I plugged in my secondary HDD (1tb MBR?). It won't boot even if I make sure Windows Boot Manager is the primary boot option. What can I do about this?

If I unplug the drive, it boots fine. If I plug it back in, it stops and Windows tries to repair itself.

Apparently if you're using Win 8 with UEFI, you can't have a 2nd drive that uses extended or logical partition. Since I had Ubuntu on the 2nd drive (logical) it wouldn't boot. I haven't done it yet, but If I delete the partition it should work just fine. I created a bootable usb with Gparted and will fix it later.

My problem is that I want to install a higher version of win 8, respectivily win 8 pro in a computer that already came with another version of win preinstalled (win 8.1). It's possible to do this in a bios that prevents csm launch.

what settings are required in the UEFI Bios to run recovery USB/ disks or Linux live CDs. It all used to be so simple. The manufacturer seems unaware that it supplies UEFI systems - so I am working blind. Have tried boot CDs and USBs but all have booted straight into Windows to date. I don't wish to change settings I have no understanding of.

I have a Medion /Lenovo desktop with an AMI UEFI Bios (12 July 2012) and Aptio Setup.